THIS invention relates to a dental implant adaptor.
A conventional dental implant assembly consists of an implant, an abutment and a crown. The implant has a threaded shank which is screwed into the bone, the abutment is then fastened to the implant and the crown, which has the appearance of the original tooth and which is visible in the mouth after implantation, is fastened to the abutment.
While the implant and abutment may have standard designs, the crown must be individually manufactured in a dental laboratory. In modern practice a digital camera is placed in the patient's mouth or over a model thereof and optical scanning is used to register the position and shape of the implant and abutment, and the corresponding part of the crown is shaped according to the scanned data.
The shapes of the current implant/abutment components are however not ideal for optical scanning in situations where a “screw retained” protocol, in which the crown is held in position by a screw, is used. Where a “closed crown cemented” protocol is used, the relevant components are more suited to optical scanning but the protocol is not universally popular. This is because it is difficult to retrieve the crown in the event of, for instance, excess wear or fracture. Also, the protocol leads to formation of a cement junction line just beneath the soft tissue of the gum and this line can be visible and unsightly if soft tissue recession takes place.